Brighton Chip Shop Owner Detained Following Attack on His Father

A horrific attack occurred in Brighton last December, with the trial recently held at Lewes Crown Court. A chip shop worker at The Lobster Pot in Saltdean caused grievous bodily harm after attacking his father. He stabbed him in the eye.

The attack was a result of a psychotic episode suffered by the attacker, Jun Lei. He had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia according to psychiatrists. This led him to believe that his father was actually a robot who had replaced his real father, whose eyeball he punctured with a knife.

Prosecutor Richard Barton spoke of Lei’s poor mental state at the time of the attack: “At that stage he was showing delusional beliefs about his parents. He believed brains could be transplanted.”

Evidence was also given to show that Lei had been seeking mental health assistance before the attack. Dr Roderick Lay of the Hellingly Centre, where Lei has been detained, spoke of how before the attack Lei believed that his father had been “replaced by a robot, and that his family were trying to poison him.”

Despite Lei having sought help for his mental state, and despite his delusions, Dr Lay has stated that this was his first clear psychotic episode: “He did not recognise that these beliefs were the early stage of his illness and psychosis.”

He is currently being held under the Mental Health Act, at Hellingly in East Sussex, in order to protect himself and the public.